Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

We had a full day to explore Carlsbad Caverns. Parts of the cave are open to self guided exploration with paved walkways, railings and low lighting. More of the cave is accessible only though reserving a tour. We booked the Kings Caverns tour and also spent a few hours on the self guided tours.

Amphitheater at the entrance to the bat cave

The natural entrance to the cave is also used as an amphitheater to watch the thousands of bats fly out every night to go feed.

The natural entrance to the cave

The natural state of the cave is complete darkness. It's artificially lit with low lighting to highlight some of the more notable rock formations and to allow better visibility for the tourists. 

After a full day of touring, we headed back to our campsite to relax and take a nap. We came back to the caves after dinner to watch the bats fly out over the amphitheater.

Across New Mexico

Monument Valley

From Mesa Verde National Park we set out on a long driving day across Arizona and New Mexico. Before we really got on our way, we made a stop at Monument Valley in northern Arizona to get some iconic photos.

Monument Valley is part of Navajo Nation, a big Native American reservation in the desert. While Monument Valley isn't a National Park, it's owned and operated by the Navajo Nation.

Cacti at our campsite

Our long driving day took us across the desert to New Mexico near the Mexican boarder. Here we camped out for the night in a desert state park.

Baby birds at the Visitors Center at White Sands National Monument

Desert camping comes with a non negotiable early wake up call as the tent quickly heats up before 9am. We packed up and hit the road for White Sands National Monument.

Sand boarding at White Sands National Monument 

These beautiful white sand dunes can be seen for miles around and are one of only three dune fields of this type in the world. The other two are just over the boarder in Mexico.

The gift shop sells sleds so we picked out a few and took the scenic drive the the heart of the dunes.

Camouflage Lizard

Crash landing

Trying our best to get all the sand off, we hit the road again. Roswell, New Mexico was just down the road so we figured we'd check it out. 

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After a short walk around town we went to the International UFO Museum and Research center to see if they could make believers out of us.

After our tour around town we headed on to Carlsbad Caverns and set up camp at an RV Park just outside of the National Park.

Mesa Verde National Park

View of Cliff Palace

Mesa Verde National Park is in the bottom South West corner of Colorado and not too far out of our way. The park is home to many stone villages that are built into the sides of cliff faces, some at dizzying heights. 

Cliff Palace

These feats of human engineering were built by the Pueblo Native American peoples some 800 years ago. To this day, no one knows fore sure why they suddenly left their ancestral home in 1300 and never returned to it. 

Because of their locations in steep cliff faces, many of the sites are open on a tour basis only. With a National Park Ranger as our guide, we took a tour of Cliff Palace and Balcony house, later exploring Spruce Tree House on our own. 

Inside of a Kiva

On the Cliff Palace tour we learned about some of the clues left behind by the people who once lived here and got an insight into how they lived. Several large round Kivas dotted the front of the site. They were used as for cooking, religious practices and general daily living. Most of the Kivas at Mesa Verde are exposed but at the time the Pueblos lived here, they would have been covered with a roof of wood and mud.

Art on the wall inside a multi-story tower

To further preserve the sites, we weren't allowed to go inside any of the buildings at Cliff Palace or touch anything. We were however, allowed to look at one painting on the wall on the inside of one of the towers.

Park Ranger answering questions

After our tour at Cliff Palace we had a short break before our tour at Balcony House down the road. Balcony House is characterized by its mostly in tact cliff side balcony. To access the site, we had to do some more vigorous climbing up steep cliffs and high ladders as well as climb through a tunnel.

View from the balcony at Balcony House

32 ft ladder to climb up to Balcony House

A short path lead us down the cliff face to the a spot just below the site. The path was added in the 30's by National Park staff. It is believed that the Puebloans climbed up and down the side of the cliff face using small foot and hand holds to get in and out of their homes.

From the path to the site we had to climb up a 32 foot ladder! Next we squeezed through a crawl space and climbed up a smaller ladder.

Tight squeeze around the back of Balcony House

From the balcony that Balcony House is named for, we watched the rest of the tour climb the big 32 ft ladder.

Watching from the Balcony as the rest of the tour climbs the 32 ft ladder

For a people who climbed cliff faces with ease, wide walk ways and stairs to the second floor were not needed.

Looking through a window to the other side of Balcony House

Another Kiva

Climbing through the tunnel 

Shortly before leaving their home to migrate south, the Pueblos bricked off the only easily accessible exits leaving a small tunnel to climb through. Some take this as evidence that the people who lived here were feeling threatened and needed to fortify their defenses, others think that it was to keep out the winter draft.

Steep walk up and out

One last ladder to get back up on top of the cliff

After our tour, we took the self guided tour of Spruce Tree House. This site has a number of reconstructed Kivas, one of which you can climb down into.

Spruce tree house

Ladder down to a reconstructed kiva

Spruce tree house

Much of the site was closed off because of the recent danger of falling rocks.